Name: Fried Fish
Ingredients: Fish (skate, whitings, haddocks, smelts, soles, perch, flounders, halibut, cod); 1 egg yolk; Bread crumbs; Lard (for frying); Fresh parsley (for garnish); Horse-radish (for garnish)

Why it works: Whiting and haddock match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 103 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Fried Fish

Ingredients

Fish (skate, whitings, haddocks, smelts, soles, perch, flounders, halibut, cod)
1 egg yolk
Bread crumbs
Lard (for frying)
Fresh parsley (for garnish)
Horse-radish (for garnish)

Directions

Wipe the fish dry.
Beat the egg yolk and spread it over the fish with a brush.
Sprinkle bread crumbs over the egg-coated fish.
Heat plenty of lard in an iron frying pan until almost boiling.
Fry the fish until golden brown, then drain them dry.
Serve with fried parsley and scraped horse-radish.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Whiting + haddocktop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together103 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Whiting + smelttop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Haddock + smelttop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Fish + breadtop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,668 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
Fish + horsetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together63 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, whiting, haddock, smelt, egg, bread, horse):

Capersfits better
Parsleythe original
Nutmegfits less well
Garlicfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, whiting, haddock, smelt, egg, bread, horse. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.